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Void Cruiser (Ship)
Description Until recently, the presence of the githyanki in the known spheres had been limited to a few incursions involving seized human and elven ships. The appearance of these new ships makes it apparent that those engagements were probes sent to research spelljamming designs and techniques. These "Void Cruisers" are named for the smaller transports used by githyanki on the Astral Plane, but it is not known whether these new ships are built there or supplied by the arcane. The arcane, as usual, aren't telling. Void cruisers are built to take full advantage of the plane-gravity physics of wildspace, and are equipped with dual decks, rigging, and deck weapons. This increases both firepower and maneuverability, but it also denies the crew planetfall. Most races, because of the difficulty coordinating central commands to both decks, usually avoid dual-decked ships. Githyanki eliminate that difficulty with their psionic powers, but if a non-psionic race were to attempt it, maneuverability and coordinated attacks would suffer. Githyanki value these great silver ships as much as they value their infamous silver swords. As with those weapons, they will go to any lengths to prevent these ships from falling into non-githyanki hands, even if it means destroying the ship and crew. Also note that the statistics given above are the minimum crew and armaments that can be expected. There have been rumors of illithid-backed offers of up to 200,000 gp for an intact void cruiser. Crew A void cruiser will often have a heavy complement of warriors of various skills aboard. All classes that can be normally encountered in a githyanki lair are usually present. In battle, spellcasters that are not manning the helms will cast offensive spells from the relative safety of the forward ballista port. A void cruiser making an attack run with lightning bolts flashing from the eyes of the forward skull is said to be a terrifying sight. Though the githyanki are relatively new to wildspace, there has been no difficulty for them to adapt to the physics of space, as it is very similar to astral space. With the githyanki's natural ability to transfer to the Astral Plane, there isn't much concern for air, so ships of this class are usually crammed with warriors. Ship Uses Battle Cruiser: The githyanki have only one use for their new ships: the extermination of their ancient racial enemies, the mind flayers. All nautiloids are always attacked on sight, whether manned by illithids or not. Often human or elven ships are attacked, for reasons as varied as racial hatreds, personal grudges, or even just "target practice". For this reason, githyanki are barely tolerated in only the most chaotic of asteroid cities. The void cruiser cannot make planetfall, due to its dual-deck construction. This is not usually a problem, though, as its primary use as a warship makes cargo space virtually wasted space, and also because githyanki individuals can make planetfall using their innate Astral Projection power. This same power also makes boarding parties both easy and deadly. Some ships have attempted to defend themselves from a void cruiser, only to find a boarding party already phasing aboard. These ships usually have both Series helms and Major helms aboard. Which helm type is being used as the primary drive depends on which powers the crew is interested in conserving. Other Configurations Void Clipper: Some sailors have whispered that a very small number of void cruisers have been modified for speed and maneuverability. These ships seem reluctant to engage opponents (even mind flayer ships!) and most sages believe that they must have a specific mission. A popular tavern-tale is that these ships are questing to find the legendary "Tomb of Gith", the asteroid gravesite of their ancient liberator. Void Dreadnought: The presence of these ships is only rumor, but it is said that they are half again the size of a normal githyanki ship, with appropriately heavier weaponry and built from black adamantite! Perhaps there is only one such ship, reserved for the use of the githyanki Lich-Queen herself.